Viva Las Vegas!
by CinnamonStyx
Summary: A short story about the Dibnys and their trip to Las Vegas. All Ralph and Sue wanted out of their vacation was something fun and without any heroics. Too bad the Royal Flush Gang had to show up.


**A/N:** _Came up with an idea for a story that I thought sounded fun and just decided to write it out. I think I'm satisfied with the end product. Also, I did some light research in this story and found out that there are a bunch of different characters in the DCU that have at some point or another called themselves the Royal Flush Gang. I honestly didn't know there were that many. Anyway, it's not too important but the version of the Royal Flush Gang appearing in this story is the one where the member Ace is a giant android. That's it for the notes._

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"Jack, what the hell? You kidnapped a superhero's girlfriend?! That never ends well, you know that."

"Give me a break, Queen. I panicked, okay. Besides, we can use her as leverage. Plastic Man will let us go if she's in danger."

Sue Dibny struggled to break through the ropes bound her wrists and legs together as she watched two parts of the Royal Flush Gang argue. She flew through the streets of Las Vegas on top of a flat hovering platform designed to resemble a playing card surrounded by two irritable costumed criminals and several large bags of cash and jewelry. Annoyed by the situation, Sue decided to voice a complaint.

"Hey! His name is _Elongated_ Man. And second, I'm more than just _'a superhero's girlfriend_'."

The Jack of Spades and Queen of Spades both glared down at their captive. "Shut up!"

A craft identical to the one Sue was an unwilling passenger off pulled up alongside her. It contained the two remaining members of the Royal Flush Gang-the King of Spades and Ten of Spades-as well as the hulking automaton known as the Ace Android.

"Jack, Queen! How'd things go on your end!" Ten called out to her cohorts.

"It was going smoothly until some super-guy showed up." Queen replied. "And get this, _Jack_ thought it'd be a great idea to kidnap his girlfriend."

"_Wife_." Sue sharply corrected. "And I don't exactly enjoy being talked about like I'm not in the room."

"Stay out of this!" snapped Jack.

"Well the casino we hit up went just perfect." Ten proudly crossed her arms. "Didn't even have to use Ace."

"Should've given him to us…" Jack grumbled.

"Ahem, people. Let's focus on the task at hand." King shifted his weight to direct the craft he was riding closer to the other members of the Gang. "We need to get to safety and divide up the loot."

"First we need to do something about Ms. Tagalong here." Queen eyed Sue for a moment.

"Push her off the side. Then she won't be our problem." Ten suggested.

Sue flinched at the mere thought of falling off the speeding card she was on. "Excuse me, I'd prefer if you didn't."

"Y'know what, that's a good idea." Jack grabbed Sue's upper arm and forced her up to her feet. "Up you go, missy. Say hi to the pavement for us."

"_Warning. Possible threat approaching._" the Ace Android spoke in its monotone.

All eyes went to Ace and then went to the direction the android was gazing off at. They immediately saw what had gotten Ace's attention. Running along the street towards them was Ralph Dibny, known to most as Elongated Man.

He had extended his legs to be almost as high as where the Royal Flush Gang's cards were flying. This allowed each step he took to cover more ground. Ralph focused his vision on the people he was chasing and noticed Sue.

"Sue! Hey, Sue! I'm coming to get you down!" Ralph shouted up to his wife.

"Hi Ralph! Took you long enough!" Sue playfully yelled back. "Seriously though, I am in need of a little assistance!"

King looked around at the other members of the Gang. "We've practiced this, take him down. Royal Flush Gang, go!"

The cards turned back around and flew down at Elongated Man.

Jack of Spades looked at Sue for a moment. "We'll get back to you after we deal with him." he pushed Sue back on to the card.

She groaned, more grumpy than anything else. "Just once I'd like to have a nice vacation…"

The Royal Flush Gang ignored her and went straight to attacking Ralph. Each with their own specialized weapons.

Ten peeled two of the spade symbols off her bodysuit, the spades became sharp and she threw them at the superhero that was growing closer to them.

Queen rolled up her left sleeve to reveal a wrist-mounted cannon underneath. The cannon fired sharpened spade weapons similar to the ones Ten used.

King took a gold scepter from a holster on his belt and pointed it at Elongated Man. A laser beam shot from its tip.

Jack became the final one to attack, taking a handful of razor-sharp playing cards out of his pocket. In his hurry, he dropped a few but he threw most of them at Ralph.

Ralph stretched and contorted his body to dodge the barrage of card-themed weapons being thrown his way. The flying cards began to circle him like a group of vultures.

"C'mon guys, try harder!" Ralph stretched his chest thinner, Ten's sharpened spades missing him by inches.

"Send in Ace!" the King of Spades ordered. "He's expendable. We escape while he takes care of Plastic Man."

"_Elongated_ Man." Sue corrected her captors again.

"Quiet, you." King turned from Sue to the Ace Android. "Ace, be a good robot and take care of that man down there."

Ace looked down at Elongated Man. "_Target acquired. Flight features activated._"

The android jumped off the card and flew towards Ralph. The flying cards resumed flying away from Elongated Man, leaving Ace to deal with the hero.

The Royal Flush Gang watched Elongated Man and Ace tangle-quite literally due to Ralph's stringy limbs-as they made their escape.

Queen sighed as she watched this. "You know I thought the whole reason we came to Las Vegas was that there weren't any big heroes here."

"It doesn't matter. All that's left to do is escape and take care of the hostage." said King.

As this conversation was going on, Sue had gotten to work at attempting to free herself. She picked up one of the edged cards Jack had dropped using her mouth and had started using it to cut the ropes around her wrists. It took longer than she would have liked due to having to cut her bindings while also trying to not cut open her mouth with the card. Eventually, she sawed through the ropes and grabbed the card out of her mouth once it was done. She then sliced the restraints around her legs at a much quicker speed.

Once Sue had freed herself, she stood up. This did not go unnoticed by the Ten of Spades.

"Queen! Jack! Behind you!" Ten warned. "The hostage got out!"

The Jack and the Queen turned around. Sue was momentarily frightened and in panic, she threw the card she picked up. The card grazed Jack's arm, ripping part of his sleeve.

"That's it! You're dead!" Jack dug into his pocket and made a charge at Sue. As he did this, Queen rolled up her sleeve again and tried to aim her spade cannon.

Sue's brain told her to fight back against the Jack of Spades but things were a bit too tense for her to come up with a complex plan. Her instant reaction-once Jack had gotten close enough-was to jerk her knee upwards in an attack. The result was Sue's knee being rammed into Jack's groin. In response, Jack froze up, let out a strained whine, and fell over.

The rest of Royal Flush Gang was a little surprised by how easy it was for Sue to take Jack down.

Sue looked straight ahead at Queen and tried to think of something cool to say. "I've got another one of those for you."

The Queen's expression did not change from deadpan disinterest. "You know that threat doesn't really work on a woman."

"It would still hurt."

"We still have you outnumbered." Queen pointed her arm-cannon at Sue again.

"Yeah, we don't need Jack to beat you." Ten peeled another sharpened spade weapon off her body suit.

"You made a good attempt, but it was all for nothing." King aimed his scepter at Sue and it began to glow. "Really, you should have thought this out better."

"_Hey, I got something for you guys!"_

The Royal Flush Gang and Sue looked back at the street behind them and saw Elongated Man running towards them on his stretched out legs. In one hand he carried the disembodied arm of the Ace Android.

"You fellas need to learn how to build a better robot!" Ralph threw the arm at the flying that contained King and Ten.

The arm hit King in the head, knocking him over and making him accidentally fire off his scepter. The laser from the scepter hit Queen in the back, incapacitating her and sending the card she and Sue were on into an erratic pattern of motion.

"Whoa!" Sue exclaimed while attempting to keep her balance.

"I'll be with you in a sec, Sue!" Ralph extended his arms, reaching towards Ten's card. "Just need to deal with this last one!"

"Make it quick!" Sue shifted her weight around, trying to control the craft and making it spin around in the air.

Ralph stretched his arms forward until he was able to grab on to Ten's card. He pulled himself up on to the card where Ten was brandishing two of her spades.

"Not another step closer. I know how to use these." Ten's threat made Ralph freeze in place. "That's right… Now you'd better-"

In almost an instant, Ralph stretched both arms forward and punched Ten of Spades in the face. Ten was knocked flat on her back and dropped her weapons. Ralph chucked. "And I didn't take a single step."

Ralph's confidence disappeared for a moment when he realized the card he was on had begun to spiral downwards. "Uh oh…"

"I'd like to get down too, Ralph!" Sue called over from her platform which still was in the middle of spinning out of control.

"I'm on it!" Ralph stretched his arm out to the card across from him and Sue grabbed his hand. He retracted his arm to its normal length, giving Sue a moment to breathe.

"Think we can get to stable ground?" Sue looked at the rapidly approaching streets below.

"No problem. Just hold on." Ralph jumped off the card while Sue clung to him as tight as she could. As he fell he extended his legs out until his feet touched the ground. Once they were stable, Elongated Man retracted his legs until he and Sue were just standing on the sidewalk. "And there we go!"

"Phew…" Sue sighed. "Some vacation this turned out to be."

"At least the Royal Flush Gang isn't as tough as I thought they'd be. Speaking of which they should be crashing pretty soon." Ralph glanced up and saw both of the flying cards coming down towards the street.

Ralph and Sue turned away as the cards crashed into the road several yards in front of them. When they looked back, the hovering cards were badly damaged and all four parts of the Royal Flush Gang were sprawled out on the ground. They were all trying their best to move around and possibly get up but were all failing.

"I think we can let the cops handle it from here." Ralph remarked. "Y'know I thought those guys used to be a lot tougher. Must be having some bad luck."

Both Dibnys walked off down the street, away from the recently thwarted criminals.

"Sorry hanging out at the casino turned out like that. Anything you wanna do now?" Ralph asked his wife.

Sue tapped her chin and stared off in thought. "Hmmm… I think I just wanna go back to the hotel. How's that?"

"Yeah, that was probably enough excitement for one day." Ralph put an arm around Sue. "Let's do something normal tomorrow."

"I'd like that. Let's try to have a nice, fun vacation with no more people in silly costumes."

Ralph glanced down at his outfit for a moment.

"_Heeeyyy,_ it's not _that_ silly." he said, taking mock-offense.

"Oh, Ralph. This is why I love you." Sue kissed Ralph on the cheek and they kept walking down the street; both of them hoping for a much less eventful vacation ahead.

**The End**

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**A/N:** _Fun fact, I initially considered writing the chase with the Royal Flush Gang from Ralph's point of view but I later thought it might be more interesting to have it be from Sue's perspective. That's it for this story, hope you liked it._


End file.
